Mathisson, Pierre

Abstract [en]

The purpose of my study was to determine whether there are any differences between the language that men use and the one that women use in a context that has not yet been studied. With the results of previous studies from other areas in mind I tried to ascertain if the stereotypes that exist about language and gender may also be transmitted to the comedy stage. I compared two stand-up comedians with opposite sex in a clip from a Swedish television show. The comparison was based on their body language, the use of nouns and verbs and on the length of their words. I used a combination of a qualitative and a quantitative method. In relation to previous studies the only aspect that corresponded with the result was the fact that women use more body language that men. As a final conclusion, there may be reason to believe that Stand-up Comedy, which started out as a male art form, has resulted in a style typical of the genre which later also was adopted by the female comedians.